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Tobacco, contract farming, and agrarian change in Zimbabwe
Author(s) -
Scoones Ian,
Mavedzenge Blasio,
Murimbarimba Felix,
Sukume Chrispen
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/joac.12210
Subject(s) - agrarian society , agribusiness , contract farming , agrarian reform , agriculture , capital (architecture) , land reform , politics , work (physics) , agrarian system , state (computer science) , agrarian structure , business , economic growth , agricultural economics , economics , political science , geography , mechanical engineering , archaeology , engineering , law , algorithm , computer science
The growth of smallholder tobacco production since 2000 has been one of the big stories of Zimbabwe's post–land reform experience. Yet the implications for agrarian change, and the consequences for new relations between farmers, the state, and agribusiness capital have rarely been discussed. The paper reports on work carried out in the Mvurwi area of Mazowe district in Zimbabwe with a sample of 220 A1 (smallholder) farmers and 100 former farmworkers resident in compounds on the same farms. By going beyond a focus on operational and business dimensions of contract farming, the paper concludes with reflections on the implications for understanding agrarian relations and social differentiation in those areas of Zimbabwe where tobacco growing is now significant, with lessons more broadly on the political economy of contract farming, and the integration of agribusiness capital following land reform.